


Understanding

by idrilhadhafang



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: False Memories, Force Bond (Star Wars), Gen, Kylo Ren and Rey Are Related, Manipulative Sheev Palpatine, Minor Poe Dameron/Ben Solo, Minor Poe Dameron/Kylo Ren, Movie: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Other, Past Poe Dameron/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey Skywalker, Snoke Being a Dick, TROS TV Spots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:08:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21797410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: Kylo knows who Rey is — as does Palpatine.
Relationships: Kylo Ren & Rey, Sheev Palpatine & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12
Collections: Allbingo





	Understanding

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Relative Values: Families
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing. 
> 
> Author’s Notes: Based on two TROS TV spots I watched.

  
When the Emperor’s presence came to Kylo, Kylo couldn’t help but be surprised when he learned that there was more to Rey the scavenger’s origins than he thought.   
  
“Impossible,” he said. “I saw it. I saw everything there was to know.”  
  
 _Did you now? It’s time that she,_ the Emperor said, _Learn the rest of her story._  
  
Kylo’s breath could not help but hitch behind the mask. When he had seen the memory — was it a memory? — of those two junk traders arguing in slurred tones about how they couldn’t take care of a child, he had been almost too eager to jump on it. To all but discredit Rey, just through the matter of her origins. Because he had hated the idea that his uncle had never given him a chance, while latching on to this one girl. And meanwhile, everyone else had refused to give him a chance as well. Perhaps General Organa had once, but that was long gone. She had Poe Dameron, the man that Kylo loved, as her replacement son. Everyone had someone else, and the pain of rejection still stung even though he tried to pretend it didn’t.   
  
_The bonds of family are still strong, are they not?_ It was odd, Kylo thought, how much the Emperor’s presence and Snoke really had in common. They seemed to know him all too well. They seemed to see things in him that he didn’t think existed. Mostly weakness. Imperfection. And no matter how he tried to cut it out of him...  
  
“Tell me the truth,” Kylo said. “If Snoke lied, and the architecture is difficult to see in that regard...who is this scavenger, really?”  
  
 _You really don’t know? You sensed it on Takodana and the Starkiller planet that there was something familiar about her. You simply refused to see what was in front of you because it would have shattered your image of Skywalker even more._  
  
“You mean...”  
  
 _Jedi can’t have attachments, but they never ruled casual affairs out. Skywalker simply did not know he had a spawn. A daughter he never knew. It is...poetic that the man who so arrogantly declared himself a Jedi like his father beforehand ultimately left behind a legacy of failure. A wayward nephew and a missing daughter...he truly has paid the price for his lack of vision._  
  
And Kylo had been fooled, again. If Snoke was not already dead, Kylo would have surely killed him. And Skywalker...it was a pity that Kylo hadn’t been able to kill him himself.   
  
***  
  
Knowing that she had been effectively lied to — it was a relief for Rey and a source of rage at the same time when Kylo spoke to her over their bond to say he had been wrong.   
  
“Well,” Rey said venomously, “It’s good to hear that everything you told me on the Supremacy was nothing more than a lie. A lie you enjoyed telling.”  
  
“I made a — ”  
  
“You’re pathetic,” Rey hissed. “Lashing out at me just because you couldn’t admit you failed. That you _made_ your choice. Nobody put a blaster to your head and made you kill your father. No one mind controlled you into burning down the Jedi Temple. You chose it.”  
  
Kylo went still. Almost too still. He didn’t even feel angry, Rey thought; he just felt like he was coming out of a trance, starting to at least consider what he did. Then, softer, “I didn’t tell you the rest. Of what happened that night." A beat. “But if you can’t believe my words, surely you can believe what I can show you. Just for a change.”  
  
He reached out his hand again. Rey thought back to the Supremacy, of a man asking her to join him. Still, she had to know. What would lead her cousin, Ben Solo, to kill half the Academy on Yavin IV?  
  
She took it. She didn’t expect to see a younger Ben Solo, probably in his late teens, running towards the Temple. Rey supposed that she should refuse to believe anything Kylo was showing her, and yet, somehow, it felt truer than anything else he’d said. Even as six other Jedi confronted him, furious over Luke’s seeming “death”. Even as six other students intervened in time. Even as someone (Rey couldn’t see who, exactly) set the Academy ablaze, no doubt as a message to Rey’s father. Even as Ben said goodbye to Poe, telling him to stay behind and protect others, protect himself as well.   
  
Rey watched, and long after the scene faded, she wished she knew what to say. To think that Ben had wanted Poe safe, and Kylo ended up hurting him anyway. To think that Ben hadn’t wanted, at first, to spill any blood, but a whole avalanche had started that had led him to, anyway.   
  
“Does that answer your question?” Kylo said.   
  
“Too well,” Rey said. “I only wonder how someone like you could have started out with good intentions and...” She trailed off. She tried thinking of what Kylo had done, and yet...  
  
“I served the wrong Master,” Kylo said. “But it does not matter. Just because Snoke cared more about power doesn’t mean I can’t do better. It’s not hard.”  
  
“Ben, you don’t even know what you’ve done. Just look around you. All those people, all those planets, every moon and star — you don’t know what you’re doing. You set out as a runaway and you became everything you never wanted to be. And...” Rey swallowed. “It’s going to get worse. You’re dooming yourself, and you’re dooming others.”  
  
Silence.   
  
“The Resistance is the one who’s doomed,” Kylo said. “Not me.”  
  
He vanished, and Rey was left standing in the garage of the Falcon like he was never here in the first place.


End file.
